Snow and Sunshine

Two days, one trip, one with snow, one with sun! Thank you again mother nature.

Yesterday

Today

Feet, and feet, and feet of snow!

Hello for heaven!

We left San Francisco last night and stayed overnight with the dawgs in a king size bed at La Quinta Inn in Fresno. We checked in at 1:15 am, and thank goodness we did.

We left Fresno around 10ish this morning to find the four lane road closed because there was a rock slide. We almost made it through, though. Had we not made that last stop at starbucks we might've been able to make it. So, we turned around and took the old road. Good thing the rock slide was only on the four lane part and we were able to make it all the way to the cabin. It took us 45 minutes to snow shoe in.


The pump house

We were soooo excited to find out we had power, heat, and man... water! SOMEONE--im not gonna say any names--but someone forgot to shut the water off on the last visit. It could not be auntie Ann or Jane, so the only logical explanation is that uncle Lou sneaked in in between auntie Ann and Jane's visit and now, to turn the water on so that perhaps someone other than him would experience a trip to the cabin with NO FRIECKEN WATER!.

We are snowed in! Below, some pictures.

Very, very wet snow

We went for a hike from the back of the cabin to the old road. The snow is very wet as the sun its keeping the area nice and warm (75 degrees).

Going for our hike, we fell into small caves created by the snow covered fallen trees. Some of us were happier than others:

We dropped the camera inside one of the wholes to take a picture of the little cave and this is what we got:

not much! :) The wholes were pretty deep probably 5 ft. I am sure there are all kinds of critters hibernating down there.

The dogs are having fun exploring all kinds of different places, they sink pretty low into the wet snow so they jump like rabbits. Its cute to see how exhausted they are once we get back to the cabin.

Hiking to the old road is so much easier in the winter because all the weeds are covered with snow and on the way back, we just have to follow our old footsteps.

Hello Spring!

Like John Denver would say:
sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy...

Outside in the front porch its 55 degrees. In the sunny back porch its 70 (in the sun 80). All this snow will be gone in no time!!

Spring!

Spring has definitely come! Thermometer at the front says 55, and that's in the shade! In the sun, it's definitely warmer - we'd even say hot! Right now we're lounging on the couches and the doors next to the fireplace are open with a pleasant breeze blowing in. Snow is still feet deep - the very top of one of our stumps is showing out at the campfire, but nothing else. A couple of bare patches for the first time.

It froze last night, but not until well after we walked in, obviously. This morning I was able to wander around and mostly didn't break through the snow, although it was obviously spotty. There is a little bit of snow left piled on the decks, but small mounds.

We are marinating a tri tip in the fridge. Lots of cooking accomplished already today.

UPDATE! Becky put the thermometer in the sun and it just hit 80. There are heat waves coming off the roof and off the railings! Very, very pleasant here right now.

Snow, where did you go?

Hard to believe that all that snow is gone!

It is a little chilly outside but much warmer than the 20 degrees reported by Uncle Lou two months ago. I guess spring is just around the corner. It was very interesting to see the the usual golden hills from the valley looking green!

 

Warm welcome

We are very glad to be here. A little tired. Ok, VERY tired. No signs of house guests. The cabin is warm and we have water and electricity. Not as much snow as the past few times. Andrew was able to slide the barn doors without having to shovel any snow. We are going to bed now. Just learned that the smart man of the cabin turned the electric blanket on 5 minutes ago. Adios!

Silver dust?

There is a very fine layer of dust over the snow. Its gray/silver and it almost looks like silver glitter. Its cool but bizarre. Andrew and I can't remember if the layer of dust was already in when we arrived or if its new. I just went out to take a picture (for illustration purposes) and to our surprise we found out that its little tiny itsy bitsy animals!!!!

Who are our visitors?

Turns out that these guys are springtails, or snow fleas:

Snow fleas are commonly called springtails and even though they love the snow, are often present during the colder months of moderate temperature areas. These minute insects from the Hypogastruridae family and Collembola order are known as the Hypogastrura nivicola species. No larger than 1/8 inch long, these stout bodied, wingless insects jump so quickly when they are disturbed that it appears they have simply disappeared. Unlike other fleas, the diet of the snow fleas consist mainly of the mold and fungus found on decaying leaf matter. The best way to observe these amazing little creatures is to place you hand on top of the snow in an area that is peppered with snow fleas. Before long you will notice that the tiny black specks are disappearing from the snowy surface and reappearing on your hand. The minute you move your hand they will almost instantly disappear. One of the best places to find the snow flea is close to any bare spot at the base of a tree that is surrounded by snow...

....In many cases when the snow flea is found on the surface of snow they are preparing to migrate. When this occurs as many as a million of the insects will move across the ground in a relatively rounded mass that extends below the winter littering of leaves. The migration of the snow flea can take several days since the tiny creatures’ rest at night. Even when the migration is over they have only moved a short distance. It is believed that these migrations take place when the food supply in one area is exhausted. Although the average snow flea is a dark, dull gray color some species of this insect are blue, red, orange, gold, brown or green.

Maybe the little guys got the word and are ready to migrate just to open room for the visit of your majesty, El Tio Poderoso.

Another visitor this morning, was a flock of these nice guys:

Morning visitor

Isn't nature amazing?

Ski Day!

Off to Sierra Summit! Their website says 34, a couple inches of new snow, and sunny. Sweet!

Igloo

We parked the car at 2:30pm and the snow was 7 feet deep. We were able to walk up to the cabin because Andrew snowshoe a mid-thigh highway for Jane, Juan, Al Pacino, and me. It took us about two hours from the car to the cabin. To our surprise when we arrived, the cabin was powerless and waterless. The house was a little chilly but by 10pm the temperature rose 9 degrees to a comfortable temperature of 49 degrees. We ate dinner by the fire still wearing our snow boots, hats, jackets, and Jane was still wearing her gators.

Last time we visited the cabin Andrew and I did not leave any wood inside. Big lesson learned: leave wood inside the cabin in winter times. Despite only having wet wood Jane, girl scout extraordinaire, built a very warm fire--she had to sacrifice the thanksgiving turkey pine cone. The power came back up sometime around 3 or 4 am and lasted for about 8 hours until it went out again.

Saturday morning Andrew revived the sourdough start and we had some incredible sourdough pancakes for breakfast. Then he shoveled the snow from the deck near the new barn doors. Jane said "Andrew cooks AND shovels snow. What a great company in the cabin."

Our attempt to go skiing didn't quite worked as Sierra Summit's parking lot was full. Luckily we heard this news when we were just at Shaver, so we turned around, went back to the cabin and went to play with the dogs in the snow.